Medicine & Health

A little health information is not enough to help obese children get into better shape, according to a recent analysis. Moreover, children who do not receive an offer for intervention or who receive information only tend to experience weight gains. Children given guidance that is more direct get into better shape, according to the review. “Providing information is a necessary component, but it’s not sufficient,” said Denise Wilfley, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo(L-R) Larry Taber, postdoctoral researcher Gang Xu and Philip Bayly examine brain and heart cells to learn something of the mechanics involved in brain folding.Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are finding common ground between the shaping of the brain and the heart during embryonic development. Larry A.Taber, Ph.D., the Dennis and Barbara Kessler Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Phillip Bayly, Ph.D., Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering, are examining mechanical and developmental processes that occur in the folding of the brain’s surface, or cortex, which gives the higher mammalian brain more surface area (and hence more intellectual capacity) than a brain of comparable volume with a smooth surface.

Active guidance is key when helping kids make diet and exercise changes, according to a new study.A little health information is not enough to help obese children get into better shape, according to a recent analysis. Moreover, children who do not receive an offer for intervention or who receive information only tend to experience weight gains. Children given guidance that is more direct get into better shape, according to the review. “Providers make the assumption that providing information leads to changes,” said Denise Wilfley, Ph.D., lead author and professor in the department of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Providing information is a necessary component, but it’s not sufficient.”

CottlerLinda Cottler, professor of epidemiology in psychiatry at the School of Medicine, has been named president-elect of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA). She will serve as its president in 2010, the organization’s centennial year.

The School of Medicine has received a five-year, $4.6 million grant to establish an interdisciplinary career development training program for physical and occupational therapists. The grant is from the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Peanut-butter staves off starvation (week of Sept. 5) • Self-managing diabetes (week of Sept. 12) • Genes and blood thinners (week of Sept. 19) • Dangers of crib bumper pads (week of Sept. 26)

A resistance gene that allows bacteria to beat an important class of antibiotics has started to appear in microorganisms taken from Midwestern patients, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. Less than a decade ago, scientists first noticed the BlaKPC gene in bacteria taken from East Coast patients.

Richard P. Sloan, professor of behavioral medicine in psychiatry at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital at the Columbia University Medical Center will respond to the question, “Is Religion Good for Your Health?” at 11 a.m., Wednesday, September 26 in Graham Chapel. Sloan’s talk is free and open to the public. The fall 2007 Assembly Series schedule continues through November 15. All programs are free and open to the public.

Although bumper pads are theoretically designed to prevent injury to a baby while in the crib or bassinet, the risk of accidental death or injury to an infant from using them outweighs their possible benefits, according to a new study by pediatric researchers at the School of Medicine. In the study, which appears in the September 2007 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, the researchers reviewed three U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission databases for deaths related to crib bumpers and crib-related injuries from 1985-2005.

Richard P. Sloan, professor of behavorial medicine in psychiatry at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University School of Medicine, will answer the question, “Is Religion Good for your Health?” for the Assembly Series at 11 a.m., Wednesday, September 26, in Graham Chapel on Washington University’s Danforth Campus.